Recent News

EVPRP establishes Stacy L. Brown Outstanding Performance Award

February 20, 2018

Amy Wright, assistant director of financial affairs for the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships (EVPRP) Office, and Donna Brown, assistant director of financial affairs for Discovery Park, are the inaugural recipients of the Stacy L. Brown Outstanding Performance Award.
The award was established last year by the EVPRP in memory of Brown, who served as the office’s director of financial affairs until her death in 2017.

All-terrain microbot moves by tumbling over complex topography

February 13, 2018

A new type of all-terrain microbot that moves by tumbling could help usher in tiny machines for various applications.
The “microscale magnetic tumbling robot,” or ?TUM (microTUM), is about 400 by 800 microns, or millionths of a meter, smaller than the head of a pin. A continuously rotating magnetic field propels the microbot in an end-over-end or sideways tumbling motion, which helps the microbot traverse uneven surfaces such as bumps and trenches, a difficult feat for other forms of motion.

Silk fibers could be high-tech ‘natural metamaterials’

January 31, 2018

New research has demonstrated how the nano-architecture of a silkworm’s fiber causes “Anderson localization of light,” a discovery that could lead to various innovations and a better understanding of light transport and heat transfer.

Purdue research hub to transform freeze-drying process used to make lifesaving drugs, preserve food

January 18, 2018

A consortium of Purdue University researchers, industry members from pharmaceutical and food processing sectors, as well as equipment makers and others, are working together at the Advanced Lyophilization Technology Hub, or LyoHub, at Purdue to modernize a process that has not changed fundamentally in 70 years even though it has a worldwide annual market of about $16 billion. The freeze-drying process, formally known as lyophilization, is used to make everything from lifesaving drugs and biotech products to foods.

Purdue part of national research contract for hypersonic vehicles

January 18, 2018

Purdue University is part of a team led by the University of Dayton Research Institute, funded with a $9.8 million, three-year contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory, for research and development in materials and structures for reusable hypersonic vehicles.
Hypersonic vehicles, which travel at speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, experience significant thermal and aerodynamic loads, said Steven P. Schneider, a professor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

New C-BRIC center will tackle brain-inspired computing

January 17, 2018

Purdue University will lead a new national center to develop brain-inspired computing for intelligent autonomous systems such as drones and personal robots capable of operating without human intervention.
The Center for Brain-inspired Computing Enabling Autonomous Intelligence, or C-BRIC, is a five-year project

Study reveals secrets of ‘fluid-like’ heat flow in solid semiconductor at nanoscale; findings important for design of new devices

January 17, 2018

Purdue University researchers have visualized temperature changes produced by ultra-small heat sources, gold strips formed on top of the semiconductor indium gallium arsenide. The work has potential implications for the design of high-speed transistors and lasers. This image (a) depicts the device structure and experimental setup, an optical image (b) of the fabricated device and (c) an experimental thermal image.

Study: Hormone keys plant growth or stress tolerance, but not both

January 16, 2018

Plants that grow well tend to be sensitive to heat and drought, and plants that can handle those stresses often have stunted growth. A Purdue University plant scientist has found the switch that creates that antagonism, opening opportunities to develop plants that exhibit both characteristics.